Getty Museum

The Harvest of the Earth

Date

about 1255–1260

Medium

Tempera colors, gold leaf, colored washes, pen and ink

Culture

English

Department

Manuscripts

Institution

Getty Museum

>And I saw, and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud one like the Son of Man sitting, having on his head a crown of gold and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him sitting on the cloud: Thrust in your sickle and reap, because the hour has come to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. >(Apocalypse 14:14-15) The angel in the miniature looks to the crowned figure sitting on a cloud, whom the Apocalypse text identifies as the Son of Man, one of the names that Jesus calls himself in the Gospels. The angel simultaneously gestures down toward the field in front of the temple, where the figure of the king reaps the harvest. Medieval commentators interpreted this passage as referring to the Messiah's gathering of the blessed from among those on earth.

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